


The Three Doctors

by Odyle



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Community: three weeks for dw, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-02
Updated: 2010-06-02
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:03:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odyle/pseuds/Odyle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Rose converge on a Cracker Barrel to be witness to a grand event.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Three Doctors

"Rose, we've been waiting for half an hour. It isn't going to knock us out of the queue if we sit down to play checkers, now are you going to play, or am I going to have to get one of those stupid miniature apes to play me?"

Rose glanced over at the children, a bunch of boys with shaved heads throwing poppers at one another as they dashed around in the empty handicap spots in front of the restaurant. She sincerely doubted that the Doctor could get one of them to sit down and play him. If he did, it could only end in tears and a very angry parent. She settled down into the rocking chair opposite the Ninth Doctor at the checkers table and placed the buzzer on the table.

The restaurant was bustling, and they had been forced to wait outside for a table to open for them. The Ninth Doctor had spent the wait pacing back and forth until someone's buzzer had rung and he have been able to procure one of the coveted checkers tables on the porch.

There was a rap at the window behind her. When she turned to look, the Tenth Doctor was standing there, looking quite pleased, in an apron that read "God Bless America" surrounded by fireworks and American flags waving in the wind.

Rose simply rolled her eyes and turned back to the table to make another move.

This restaurant was like a miniature theme park. There were all sorts of things she'd never seen anywhere else while wandering around in America. Granted, most of her wandering had been done at a running speed, but she could still claim the experience. This place realized every bad American stereotype that she had never believed could be true.

"Why did we come here?" Rose asked as the Doctor stared down at the checkers board.

"I told you, Rose—something fantastic will be happening tonight at this very restaurant."

There was a knocking sound again. This time the Tenth and the Eleventh Doctors held up a matched pair of children dressed in t-shirts with sequin American flags flanked by cartoon eagles.

"Put those down," the Ninth Doctor, though it was take him seriously as he perched on a miniature barrel, his legs splayed wide to compensate for the lowness of the barrel. "You don't know where those have been."

The pair set the squirming children down and disappeared back into the gift shop. They emerged onto the porch just as Nine was poised to win their third checkers match in ten minutes.

"We bought candy," the Tenth Doctor announced. He pulled several rock candy lollipops from a brown paper bag, giving one to Eleven, putting one in his own mouth, and holding the last out to Rose.

"No thanks. I don't want to spoil my dinner."

Ten dropped the third lollipop back into the bag without offering it to Nine, who was busy resetting the checker board. He hadn't even bothered to deliver the killing blow to Rose in the third match, he just got to a point where it was obvious to even Rose that she was a few turns from defeat, before he reset the board again.

Eleven shoved his lollipop in his mouth, bit down on it, and promptly spit the hunk of bright pink sugar onto the sidewalk. He licked his arm, trying to wipe away the sweetness of the rock candy.

Ten, watched him, contentedly sucking on his rock candy lollipop.

Everyone on the porch was staring at them, and Rose was relieved when the buzzer lit up to announce that their table was ready. She stood and took Nine's hand to pull him to his feet even as he made his last move in the game.

"Come on," she announced, holding up the jittering device as it led her out of an embarrassing situation like a beacon of hope.

Ten snapped out of his reverie long enough to notice that they were going inside, and he followed Rose and the Ninth Doctor in.

Eleven trailed behind them, still emphatically shouting 'bleh' every few moments and scrunching his face.

 

The Doctors ended up ordering so much food that they had to remove even the little golf tee puzzle to make room for all of the plates. Most of it belonged to Eleven, though Ten ordered twice as much as Rose and Nine combined.

Through the meal, Rose took note of what foods the Eleventh Doctor mixed together. It seemed he couldn't eat anything as it came. The only thing he ever seemed to really like was chips dipped in soft serve.

"You said there was something important happening here tonight, yeah?"

"And there is," Eleven said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes combined with cole slaw, which he promptly spat back onto the plate. "They're test marketing Pecan pie a la mode at this very restaurant tonight."

"They won't decide to carry it everywhere. Too expensive for them," added the Tenth.

"You're telling me we all travelled through time and risked creatin' some sort of paradox to have pie?"

Each of the Doctors looked at one another, surprised at the Rose's question.

"It's really good pie," the Eleventh Doctor insisted, and the other two nodded.


End file.
